Poland: Who May Come to Czestochowa?

As the Ecumenical Council ended in Rome last
month, the Polish delegation headed by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski,
acting in the truest spirit of Christian reconciliation, invited East
and West Germany's 54 bishops, archbishops and cardinals to attend the
ceremonies in Czestochowa next May marking the 1,000th anniversary of
the conversion of Poland's King Mieczyslaw I. Wrote the Polish
churchmen: "We grant forgiveness and ask forgiveness. Let us forget.
No polemics. No more cold war."

The invitation was gratefully accepted, but the gesture to the hated
Germans left Poland's Communist regime sputtering with rage. Just how
seriously Party Boss Wladyslaw Gomulka...